Bugger off, this is my client's idea

For the last few months there’s a conversation I’ve noticed resurfacing over and over again among agencies and clients. “Film production has become just too expensive yaar,” the client goes, “how do we justify this?!” And the agency can’t really say anything except, “I’m sorry but this is not in our hands.” But is that true?

I’ve had the good fortune to work in many cities across the world from New York to London to Sweden in some of the best ad agencies. And the production process there is very different from what we have here in India. The first part is the same — the agency comes up with the idea, does all the months of work with research, strategic evolution, iteration, etc and after everything sometimes we end up with a 30 second TV spot. However, after the script is approved, the agency doesn’t just call up a production company. Here’s what they do:

1. The agency producer sits with the creative team to understand their vision

2. The agency producer then brings 4-5 director options on the table and one is chosen from that by the agency and client. The director normally is attached to a specific production house which organises the shoot.

3. The agency producer then also puts together options for the DOP, music director, editor, colour correction company, etc. and shares this with the creative team.

4. If the director has a point of view of who he wants to work with, the agency will consider that, but the final call is that of the agency alone.

5. The director shoots the film, hands over the footage, shares his vision with everyone in the process, and leaves. He is paid a time-cost by the agency on behalf of the client.

6. The agency then pays the DOP, music director, editor, colour correction company, etc. individually and has individual contracts with each of them.

What do we achieve from this process? Firstly, the film is produced as per the agency’s creative vision and every element along the way is controlled by the agency. We can then take true responsibility for our product — be it criticism or praise. Currently, we treat the director as if this is his film. His music, his editing, his baby. We expect the director and production company to do everything – including client presentations! And then we wonder why clients don’t want to pay agency supervision costs anymore! Or even worse, clients are calling directors directly and getting them to write the script.

Secondly, the agency then acts on behalf of the client and makes sure that everything in the journey is owned by the client — from the shirt worn by the talent to the rights of the film. This here is a very key point. In the present scenario, if the client wants to use the film after the contract is over and change even the smallest of things, the agency needs to take permission from the production house, who then bills you for rights from the director, VO artist, music director, talent, and things that will sometimes make you laugh! For example – a 10 second edit outside of the original budget can cost anything between Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 5 lakh! How do we ratify that?

A larger question here is, who made any of these people owners of these rights in the first place? Didn’t the client pay them all for the time cost? Globally, only the talent has rights involved and if the film is going to be aired after the contract has expired, the agency calls the talent directly and buys rights from them. In India, some production companies will say that they are not charging any money, they are paying that money to the talent. Then why can’t agency pay the talent directly? Why do we have to go via the production company?

By this parallel, shouldn’t the script or the idea then belong to the agency? And shouldn’t we be charging clients for reusing our ideas year after year? Seems laughable, right? It is very obvious that an idea belongs to the brand (aka, the client). Agencies change, people change, but ideas live on forever. Then why should it be any different for films? I’m not saying something radical here, the steps I’ve described above are very standard across the world and it has proven to be an efficient model. Then why are we reinventing the wheel in India? Let the director charge his fee — the big Indian directors today are more expensive than the biggies globally, and I’m very proud of this fact. We pay that cost for his or her talent. But the costs for studios, editing hours, camera rentals, etc are very standard and the agency should control those. Only then can we truly change the system and stop being victims between production houses and clients.

When we try to buy rights for our clients for lifetime, production companies charge another huge amount for perpetuity rights. We then don’t have a choice but to buy rights for 1-2 years and get stuck in the same trap all over again. Can we as agencies come together and make a standard practice of having lifetime rights without paying perpetuity costs? Because the idea belongs to the client and not the production company.

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